SYSCO, the world’s leading foodservice company, has sales of $55 billion and employs nearly 65,000 people worldwide. In France, it was born from the merger between BRAKE France and DAVIGEL in May 2018. Within the framework of this merger, the IT department of SYSCO France must evolve its target organization. This transition is to take place over a period of 18 months.
Paul Lavoquet, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of SYSCO gives an insight on the sourcing of IT profiles in his organization.
What profiles are you looking for?
In phase of transformation, the recruitment of IT profiles constitutes a decisive stake for SYSCO. In priority, Sysco is looking for project managers, PMO, technical architects and system and network engineers. We are mainly looking to support the infrastructure and support departments of the IT department. We have recruited a Director of Infrastructure, a Director of Studies and Development, as well as an Architecture Manager and a Project Manager. We now need to strengthen our focus on transformation projects.
The recruitment of business profiles, hinges between IT and business (such as MOA, PMO, business project manager) are also recruited according to the recommendations of the IT Department.
What trends do you see in the sourcing of IT profiles?
Skills are increasingly scarce in a very active market. The best profiles are in high demand. Young workers no longer have exactly the same expectations at work. They are more interested in the work context, the profile of the team and its level of openness. They pay more attention to the interest of the mission and probably less to the status of the position.
We are currently seeing a marked tension in the sourcing of network architecture profiles, as well as DevOps profiles, which straddle the line between infrastructure and development. Skills in new technologies, for web and mobile projects are also highly sought after. Finally, the competition for sourcing data architects and data scientists has been a strong trend in recent months.
How do you attract talent?
In the quest for talent – especially in IT – making the company attractive must be a priority. Making people want to join a company, and thrive in it, is crucial at a time when IT experts are in high demand. The global context of the company and the interest of the project must be motivating for the candidates.
[nz_highlight color=”rgb(42,49,122)”]What exactly am I going to achieve? Will my accomplishments serve my autonomy on these topics and my employability level? These are the questions that an IT candidate asks himself.[/nz_highlight][nz_gap height=”45″ /]
If you present a project – from the trade or technical – with the promise of building a professional profile, candidates are listening. To make a candidate want to join the company, the IT department must make sense of the company’s project by linking it to the candidates’ aspirations.
The recruiter must reassure a candidate about his ability to grow his professional profile.
How do you organize your sourcing?
SYSCO uses sourcing actors – including Lucernys – to facilitate our recruitment work. We work with firms that are familiar with IT jobs and know how to propose profiles very quickly. In a recruitment process, speed has become essential. I can’t afford to be on a 6-month cycle to hire someone when Sysco’s blueprint is challenged every 18 months.
Our sourcing must be responsive to match our agile roadmap.
How do you select candidates?
With the same skills, a candidate’s know-how makes an important difference. Knowing how to be agile, having the ability to interact with different hierarchical levels, being able to federate and lead a work group are all assets that are not related to skills. More than ever, it is essential to take into account everything that makes up a candidate.
Finding the candidate who combines competence, availability and an open and caring attitude towards others, is a specialist job. That’s why we work with recruitment firms specialized in our business lines, like Lucernys. Beyond the pool of candidates they have built up, the relationship that recruitment firms build with candidates and their ability to activate them quickly represent valuable assets.
These professionals also know how to perceive the evolution of their clients’ needs in a sector that is constantly changing.
Why do you use Lucernys?
Lucernys brings the reactivity, the level of service and the relevant business vision for the recruitment of part of SYSCO’s IT teams.
